Liquid Cooling Technologies Driving Data Centre Efficiency

Data centre cooling in the AI era

During a busy Data Centre World London 2026, Joe from DCNN caught up with Alistair Barnes (pictured above), Global Head of Mechanical Engineering at Colt DCS, to ask how the mechanical engineering discipline is evolving in response to the rapid rise of AI workloads. The two discussed a variety of topics, from the shift towards liquid cooling solutions to the challenge of keeping pace with ever-increasing rack-level power densities. Here, you can read the full Q&A, in which Alistair shares his perspective on where liquid cooling stands today, how Colt DCS's Global Reference Design philosophy shapes its approach to data centre infrastructure, and what he believes remains the industry's toughest unsolved engineering challenge: Liquid cooling, rack densities, and the future of mechanical engineering Joe: Hi, Alistair! So, how is mechanical engineering keeping pace with the shift to higher-density AI workloads? Alistair: Mechanical engineers are keeping pace with higher‑density AI workloads by moving beyond traditional air‑only cooling and rethinking the entire thermal design stack. Instead of simply supplying cold air, they now operate more like system integrators, collaborating closely with IT and facilities teams to cool heat‑intensive components such as GPUs. This includes integrating direct‑to‑chip cold plates, liquid distribution loops, and hybrid cooling systems capable of managing the extreme heat generated by modern AI hardware. Joe: In your opinion, is liquid cooling now a mainstream solution or still a specialist one? Alistair: Liquid cooling is becoming increasingly mainstream, but the industry isn’t yet at a point where it can rely on liquid alone, as air still plays an important role in most deployments. Operators adopting Global Reference Designs (GRDs) now include liquid‑cooling options to support high‑density AI workloads that air alone can’t efficiently manage. As a result, many still use hybrid setups that combine air cooling with liquid where needed. Closed‑loop systems, such as liquid‑to‑chip, circulate coolant in a sealed loop, ensuring near‑zero wastewater and making them practical and sustainable. Joe: Where does mechanical engineering sit in Colt DCS's broader data centre design philosophy? Alistair: Mechanical engineering sits at the core of our design philosophy, supporting our commitment to delivering scalable, efficient, and sustainable data centre solutions. We adopt a GRD, a standardised and repeatable blueprint that accelerates deployment, optimises cost, and maintains consistent quality while remaining flexible enough to meet local requirements. Mechanical engineers play a key role in shaping the GRD, ensuring mission-critical cooling infrastructure and integrating new technologies across sites to support future growth and reliable operations. Joe: What's the hardest engineering problem the industry hasn't solved yet? Alistair: The hardest engineering problem the industry hasn’t solved is keeping pace with the accelerating rise in rack‑level power densities. Liquid cooling is advancing quickly and can manage far more heat than ever before, but single‑rack densities approaching 2MW and beyond are increasing faster than these solutions can be deployed at scale. The real challenge is delivering this capacity sustainably - balancing cooling performance, energy efficiency, and power availability - all while accelerating build timelines to keep up with customer demand. For more from Colt DCS, click here.

ZutaCore brings two-phase cooling to PCIe GPUs

ZutaCore, a developer of liquid cooling technology, has announced that its OmniTherm cold plate now enables waterless, two-phase cooling for manufacturers building servers with the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs in a single-slot PCIe form factor, supporting full-power operation in standard enterprise and AI cloud server environments. As AI inference expands across enterprise and cloud environments, PCIe GPU servers have become a common platform due to their relative ease of deployment, scalability, and compatibility with existing infrastructure. However, as GPU power consumption rises, air cooling can become a limiting factor, restricting density, driving up fan power, and increasing the risk of thermal throttling during sustained workloads. The company says OmniTherm addresses this by enabling a transition to two-phase liquid cooling without introducing water inside the server. The single-slot design allows operators to increase accelerator density in standard server architectures while capturing heat into a liquid loop, reducing reliance on high fan speeds that can create excessive noise, waste power, and cause difficult operating conditions in the data centre. "Enterprise and cloud operators want the flexibility of PCIe GPUs, but they also need density and sustained performance as power levels rise," comments My D. Truong, CTO of ZutaCore. "OmniTherm delivers waterless, two-phase cooling in a single-slot form factor, helping data centres increase accelerator density while maintaining stable thermals for 24/7 AI workloads." Two-phase cooling for dynamic AI workloads Production AI workloads - particularly inference - are rarely steady, fluctuating constantly and creating thermal swings that can affect performance and reliability. ZutaCore says its two-phase approach is designed to respond to changing workloads, helping data centres maintain predictable performance under dynamic utilisation. As racks move into higher power levels, the operational cost of air cooling also rises, with increased fan energy consumption and growing acoustic and facility pressures. OmniTherm uses a sealed, non-conductive dielectric fluid system that captures heat without requiring facility water in the server, reducing cooling overhead and providing a path to scaling PCIe-based AI deployments. Alongside this announcement, ZutaCore has also introduced HyperCool Cloud, a cloud-native operations platform designed to help data centres manage liquid cooling infrastructure. The platform, the company says, provides "near-real-time" CDU telemetry, fleet-level monitoring, and alarm-to-resolution workflows, helping operators manage service response and uptime as deployments scale across sites and fleets. For more from ZutaCore, click here.

Tecnair launches new CDUs for data centre cooling

Tecnair, a manufacturer of close control air conditioning units for data centres and a Panasonic company, has introduced a new range of coolant distribution units (CDUs) designed for high-density artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) data centres. The systems were presented at Data Centre World London 2026, held on 4–5 March, and are intended to support liquid cooling deployments as computing densities increase. Rising AI workloads are pushing rack densities beyond levels typically supported by traditional air cooling. The CDU range has been developed to support liquid cooling architectures, including direct-to-chip and immersion cooling, helping data centre operators manage higher thermal loads. The units are designed for environments where rack densities regularly exceed 50kW and are approaching 100kW. Liquid cooling for high-density infrastructure The CDU range is available in capacities of 400kW and 800kW and can be deployed across a range of environments, from edge facilities to hyperscale data centres. The systems include redundant components such as pumps, power supplies, and sensors to support continuous operation in mission-critical environments. A failover capability is also included to maintain cooling during maintenance or component failure. According to Tecnair, the units can achieve partial power usage effectiveness (pPUE) values as low as 1.02 through the use of free-cooling coils and micro-channel heat exchanger technology. Monitoring functions are integrated through Modbus building management system connectivity, enabling real-time visibility of parameters including temperature, pressure, flow rate, water level, and leak detection. The CDU range is designed to integrate with Panasonic cooling systems, including free-cooling chillers using R1234ze refrigerant with a low global warming potential. These chillers use outside air temperatures, down to -10°C, to generate chilled water through a free-cooling function, supporting improved energy efficiency in suitable climates. For more from Tecnair, click here.

Crestchic unveils 600kW liquid-cooled loadbank

Crestchic, a UK manufacturer of loadbanks and transformers for testing power systems and data centres, has launched its new 600kW Liquid Cooled Loadbank at Data Centre World London 2026, aimed at supporting commissioning in the growing liquid-cooled data centre market. As rack power densities increase, operators are increasingly adopting liquid cooling to manage higher thermal loads. Crestchic says the new system has been designed to provide accurate thermal validation and precision electrical testing for liquid-cooled infrastructure. The 600kW loadbank delivers up to 648kW at 415V and features stable ΔT thermal control to ±0.5°C, enabling repeatable testing during commissioning. Temperature accuracy is maintained regardless of flow variation, while built-in protections cover flow, pressure, overload, underload, and thermal shock. Designed for liquid-cooled data centre commissioning The unit uses a single-vessel architecture, reducing footprint compared with multi-vessel systems at similar power levels. This compact design makes it easier to position in plant rooms and simplifies transport and handling. The platform includes a stackable structure, flush-mounted connections, heavy-duty castors, and dual-side forklift pockets, allowing two units to be transported within a standard-height ISO shipping container. The system integrates with Crestchic’s VCS software, providing live monitoring of supply and hydraulic data, real-time load profiling, and the ability to cluster up to 240 load banks for hybrid air- and liquid-cooled testing. Paul Brickman, Commercial Director at Crestchic, says, “The move towards liquid cooling is accelerating as rack densities increase, particularly with AI and high-performance computing workloads. “Our new 600kW Liquid Cooled Loadbank has been designed from the ground up to serve this market, giving commissioning engineers the precision, reliability, and control they need to bring critical infrastructure online with confidence." The 600kW Liquid Cooled Loadbank is available for sale or rental through Crestchic’s global network. For more from Crestchic, click here.

Johnson Controls to acquire Alloy Enterprises

Johnson Controls, a global provider of smart building technologies, has signed an agreement to acquire Alloy Enterprises, a developer of liquid cooling technology for high performance data centres and industrial facilities. Founded in 2020 and based in Boston, USA, Alloy Enterprises develops direct liquid cooling components designed to improve heat removal and reduce pressure drop in cooling loops. The company states the approach can improve thermal efficiency by up to 35% while lowering cooling system energy use. The acquisition is intended to expand Johnson Controls’ data centre cooling portfolio, which already includes chillers, coolant distribution units, and waste heat recovery systems. Liquid cooling capability expansion Johnson Controls says Alloy’s manufacturing and materials engineering capabilities will complement its existing cooling equipment, including chillers and liquid cooling distribution platforms. The technology is designed to support cooling of GPUs, CPUs, memory, and network interfaces in high density computing environments. Lei Schlitz, President, Global Products & Solutions at Johnson Controls, says, “This acquisition is about enabling our customers to stay ahead of fast-changing compute demands by adding another core technology that enables us to optimise the overall thermal management architecture of a data centre. "It will also strengthen our core technology capabilities that can scale across the Johnson Controls portfolio and reinforces our long-term commitment to lead more broadly in advanced thermal management solutions for mission critical applications.” Alison Forsyth, co-founder and CEO of Alloy Enterprises, says, “We’ll continue to work closely to solve the industry's most urgent challenges in data centres and other mission-critical environments. "We look forward to this new chapter and continuing to scale with one of the world's most respected and experienced leaders in thermal management innovation.” The transaction is expected to complete in the company’s fiscal third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals. Financial terms were not disclosed. For more from Johnson Controls, click here.

Geberit to highlight piping systems at DCW 2026

Swiss manufacturer Geberit will present two supply systems for data centre environments - the Geberit Mapress Stainless Steel and Geberit FlowFit - at Data Centre World 2026 in London, 4–5 March 2026. Geberit Mapress Stainless Steel is designed for long-term operation in demanding conditions. The material’s molybdenum content provides corrosion resistance intended to support continuous operation in critical facilities where downtime must be avoided. Geberit FlowFit focuses on installation efficiency. Its lateral pressing method covers pipe dimensions from d16 to d75 using two pressing jaws, reducing tool changes during installation. Inspection windows and pressing indicators allow installers to verify connections, while fitting geometry maintains flow performance and enables smaller pipe diameters to be used. The company says the two systems are intended to support reliability and consistent performance across modern data centre infrastructure.

Carrier to showcase AI cooling at DCW London 2026

Carrier, a manufacturer of HVAC, refrigeration, and fire and security equipment, will present its QuantumLeap portfolio at Data Centre World London 2026, taking place on 4–5 March. As a Platinum Sponsor, the company will host a panel discussion, a keynote session, and a solo presentation focused on cooling, building management, and lifecycle services for AI-driven data centres. Carrier, part of Carrier Global Corporation, will outline how increasing AI workloads are affecting thermal density and energy consumption across data centre environments. The company says the rapid growth of AI is creating pressure to manage higher heat loads while reducing overall energy use. Its QuantumLeap portfolio includes liquid cooling systems and high-efficiency chillers designed to support next-generation processors and higher rack densities. Integrated management and lifecycle focus Carrier will also highlight its building automation and data centre infrastructure management capabilities. By linking cooling, power, and IT systems through building automation systems and DCIM platforms, the company aims to give operators clearer operational oversight and improved energy control. In addition, Carrier will address lifecycle management, including waste heat reuse and grid participation, as part of broader sustainability strategies within AI data centres. Bertrand Rotagnon, Executive Director Commercial Business Line & Data Centres Europe, says, “Data centres can’t choose between growth, resilience, and energy performance; they need all three. "At DCW London 2026, we’re showcasing Carrier QuantumLeap solutions to help operators simplify decisions, improve efficiency, and move towards measurable energy contribution.” Carrier will be located at Stand D70. The company’s panel discussion takes place at 12:20 on Wednesday, 4 March, with a solo presentation at 15:55 on the same day and a keynote at 14:50 on Thursday, 5 March. For more from Carrier, click here.

Infosys, ExxonMobil collaborate on immersion cooling

Infosys, an Indian multinational provider of IT services, has expanded its collaboration with ExxonMobil, a US multinational oil and gas company, to develop and deploy ExxonMobil data centre immersion fluids for AI and high-performance computing environments. The initiative focuses on improving energy efficiency and supporting higher-density compute infrastructure. It builds on the companies’ existing relationship and targets the growing power and cooling requirements associated with AI workloads. Infosys will combine ExxonMobil’s immersion cooling fluids with its Topaz AI portfolio and Cobalt cloud services framework. The aim is to support the design and deployment of cooling systems across cloud and data centre environments. AI-driven optimisation and cloud integration According to Infosys, Topaz will be used to optimise cooling operations through real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. Cobalt will provide cloud integration and deployment support for enterprise environments. The collaboration is expected to target hyperscalers, enterprises, and public sector organisations across sectors including financial services, telecoms, manufacturing, and energy. Ashiss Kumar Dash, EVP & Global Head - Services, Utilities, Resources, Energy and Enterprise Sustainability at Infosys, says, “Our expanded collaboration with ExxonMobil marks a pivotal step in scaling next-generation solutions. "By leveraging Infosys Topaz for real-time AI-driven optimisation and Infosys Cobalt for secure, scalable cloud deployment with ExxonMobil’s advanced energy expertise, we are addressing the urgent need for more efficient high-performance digital infrastructure. "This collaboration has the potential to deliver measurable outcomes by reducing data centre energy costs and carbon emissions while empowering enterprises to scale responsibly and meet the demands of an AI-powered future.” Alistair Westwood, Global Marketing Manager, ExxonMobil Product Solutions Company, adds, “This collaboration reflects our commitment to innovation by allowing us to apply our energy and thermal management expertise to the evolving landscape of digital infrastructure. "Infosys’ suite of AI and digital services is enabling us to pilot and adopt infrastructure that is smarter, efficient, and more resilient.”

ERIKS to showcase valves expertise at Data Centre World 2026

ERIKS UK & I, which has recently become a Rubix company, is exhibiting on Stand F6 at Data Centre World in London (4–5 March 2026), highlighting its experience in supporting designers and contractors working on increasingly complex cooling infrastructure. The company will showcase its valve expertise in data centre cooling applications, as AI-driven workloads place increasing demands on chilled water systems. The rapid adoption of AI workloads is reshaping data centre design, with higher rack densities and new cooling architectures placing greater strain on mechanical systems. Chilled water networks are now required to operate at higher flow rates, deliver tighter control, and perform reliably in more demanding operating conditions, increasing the importance of valve selection, consistency, and long-term performance. ERIKS supports data centre HVAC and chilled water applications with a broad portfolio of valve technologies covering the core functions commonly specified in cooling systems, including isolation, regulation, and protection. The offering spans a wide range of sizes, materials and actuation options, enabling engineers to standardise valve selection while accommodating differences in system design, environmental exposure, and future expansion plans. Meeting changing data centre design Jonny Herbert, Business Development Manager for Data Centres at ERIKS UK & I, says, “AI is accelerating the pace of change in data centre design, particularly on the cooling side. "While valves are often treated as commodity components, their role in controlling and protecting chilled water systems is critical. Our approach is shaped by years of experience in the data centre sector, prioritising robustness, material choice, and practical design.” ERIKS says it encourages earlier engagement on valve selection during the design and specification stages of data centre projects. Factors such as water quality, environmental exposure, coating requirements, and access for operation and maintenance can all influence long-term system reliability. Addressing these considerations upfront can help reduce the risk of premature failure, rework, or delays during installation. Jonny continues, “As data centre projects become larger, more complex, and more tightly integrated with digital infrastructure, Data Centre World has become an important meeting point for the engineers, consultants, and contractors shaping the next generation of facilities. Our presence reflects both the maturity of our involvement in the sector and the growing need for practical, experience-led support as cooling requirements continue to evolve.” Visit ERIKS UK & I on stand F6 at Data Centre World London (4–5 March 2026) to discuss valve requirements for data centre cooling and chilled water applications. Learn more, by visiting the company's website.

Trane to acquire LiquidStack

Trane Technologies, a US manufacturer of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LiquidStack, a US-based provider of liquid cooling technology for data centres. LiquidStack, headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, develops direct-to-chip and immersion cooling systems for high-density and hyperscale computing environments. The company’s technology is used to support generative AI and other compute-intensive workloads. Trane Technologies made a minority investment in LiquidStack in 2023. The proposed acquisition expands its data centre thermal management portfolio, which includes chillers, heat rejection systems, controls, liquid distribution, and on-chip cooling. Expanding liquid cooling capabilities The deal includes LiquidStack’s manufacturing, engineering, and research and development operations in Texas and Hong Kong. Following completion, the business will operate within the Commercial HVAC unit of Trane Technologies’ Americas segment. Holly Paeper, President, Commercial HVAC Americas, Trane Technologies, says, “Rising chip-level power and heat densities, combined with increasingly variable workloads, are redefining thermal management requirements inside modern data centres. "Customers need integrated cooling solutions that scale from the central plant to the chip and can adapt as performance demands continue to evolve. "LiquidStack’s direct-to-chip and immersion cooling capabilities and talent, combined with Trane’s systems expertise and global footprint, strengthen our ability to deliver end-to-end, future-ready thermal management across the entire data centre ecosystem.” LiquidStack co-founder and CEO Joe Capes will join Trane Technologies in a leadership role and will continue to lead the business. Joe says, “LiquidStack has been on a mission to innovate and deliver the most advanced, powerful, and sustainable liquid cooling solutions. "Joining Trane Technologies enables us to accelerate that mission with the resources, scale, and global reach needed to power next-generation AI workloads in the most demanding compute environments." The transaction is expected to close in early 2026, subject to customary conditions. Financial terms have not been disclosed. Trane Technologies also recently announced the acquisition of Stellar Energy, which is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2026. For more from Trane Technologies, click here.